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â€" -ffjâ€"\'nz)_\nlaobfovide sufficient comment in itself to write beneath this commandment the singl word: Watergate Governments at the federal and provincial levels are now seriously grappling with the creation of adequate energy policies. Events have left them with no alterâ€" native. We don‘t, in fact, have an energy crisis in Canada; but we do have the advantage of a sharp warning from the United States of what is in store, if we don‘t act in time. Obviously, any provincial energy policy must be fitted into the framework of a national policy. That is why the Ontario government is on strong ground in criticizing the near vacuum on energy policy at Otâ€" tawa. But, assuming that we shall soon have a national ‘policy, there are certain basic features of Ontario‘s emerging policy which merit some comment. ‘Ontario policy is emerging because, it will be recalled, Premier Davis appointed Darcy McKeough as his parliamentary assistant with exclusive responsibility to probe this policy field. Early in July Mr. McKeough was sworn in as Minister of Energy. witness against thy neighbor. “Wétergate offers conclusive proof, if proof were. needed, that it is unwise, as it is also unethical, to bear false witness. It is also ultimately selfâ€"defeating. When I wrote specifically about Watergate some few weeks ago I quoted Pope‘s dictum: O what a tangled web we weave When first we practice to deceive. It is true. W.F. Buckley, writing in the American National Review, puts the same point of view with the added piquancy of humor when he describes Watergate as a man saying: That‘s not true, sir. I never claimed I didn‘t try to conceal that I denied I hadn‘t lied about it. How admirably that complex sentence conjures up the picture of Mr. Nixon caught in the coils of his own conceit. The first basic in Ontario‘s energy situation is that we are dependent on imports from outside the province for 80 per cent of our energy needs. The 20 per cent available from within the province is made up mostly of electgic power, supplemented by fractional amounts of gas and oil. It is interesting to note that most of this 20 per cent falls within the public sector. Major concentration in formulating an energy policy for Ontario inevitably falls on the 80 per cent of our needs which must be secured in western Canada (oil .and gas) ; offshore (oil from the middle East and South America); and the United States (principally Pennâ€" sylvania coal). Peter Jenkins, a British commentator, draws a parallel between Richard Nixon and Narcissus. Maybe, he writes, the name Nixon will give a word to the language like Narcissus did. Morbid recording of one‘s own voice for posterity is the perfect modern and quintessentiall, American equivalent of gazing at one‘s reflection in a stream; it could lead to political downfall too. Narcissus fell prematurely into his stream and Mr. Nixon may yet be hanged by his recording tapes. As we have learned, while western oil and gas supplies are secure, their price is subject to repeated Recently I have had the experience of clearing a patch of bush from the choking grip of a vineâ€"like creeper (whose botanical name eludes me). The spiralling tendons of this plant reach out in all direcâ€" tions and all the while their wild, rapacious growth is richly supplied with nourishment from a tangled network of rootage. To me that typifies Watergate. In U.S. cities transit riding has dropped to oneâ€"third of what it was 25 years ago. In Metro Toronto transit riding has climbed upward year after year to new peaks. While spending a few days away from it all in the depth of Ontario‘s cottage country, I had leisure to reflect on how simple life is essentially. It is we who make it intolerably complex: Either through lust of gold or like a girl Valuing the giddy pleasures of the eye. But even with over 1,986 transit vehicles, including 1,000 buses, riding public transit in Metro is not aiways convenient and comfortable. One of the primary objectives of Metro and Ontario governments is to get more people to use public transit. The idea is to get the motoristâ€"to leave his car at home â€" or at least stay out of the downtown Ninth Commahdment: Thou shalt not bear false AQhrre OW AeePWiinaiop Anb i c 000 We iC O Aivn t Pn P a Comfort and convenience Effective energy policy increases, even in breach of longâ€"term contracts. Ironically, that has come about because of the initiative of another Conservative provincial governâ€" ment, in Alberta. The offâ€"shore oil is subject to the ‘political whims of the sheiks of Arabi, both as to quantity and price, so that source is worrisome. _American coal remains costly, and is likely to become mqre so. > All of which raises an interesting question centred in the feasibility of using our own lignite deposits in the James Bay.‘area. For some time now, the provincial government had had contracts with a private company from Alberta sucveying the development potential of the lignite deposits of the north, and they have assured the legislature that if development is technically possible, it may be done through public enterprise, private enterprise, or a mixture of both. Because of the predominanceâ€"of public enterprise in our indigenous energy sources, the New Democratic Party has been urging that they be done through a crown corporation, so that any profits which accrue can be turned back to the people. One ‘of the major needs of an energy policy is to assure continuity of supply. It was significant that in the McKeough Report, a strong recommendation was made that energy utilities in Ontario should be enâ€" couraged to inyest in energy resources, So as to assure this supply. It went further : advocating the setting up of an Energy Development Fund to make the necessary monies available for this purpose. Some wideâ€"ranging prospects are opened up by this recommendation.Again, they represent a widening of the public sector ; but it would mean that Ontarioâ€"based utilities would be investing in sources outside the Those two lines from Tennyson are precegded by the line: Thou would‘st betray me for the precious hilt. This is the dying Arthur‘s reference to his famous sword excalibur. To obtain this precious sword the latest left of all his knights, Sir Bedevere, was willing to betray his sovereign‘s dying wish. The book of Psalms also commends this same virtue of loyalty. The good man, it says (Psalm 15) is one My recollection of Sir Bedevere‘s disloyalty coinâ€" cides with the appearance in the daily press of the report of the swearingâ€"in ceremony for the new Governor of Bermuda, Canadianâ€"born Sir Edwin Leather. I knew Ted Leather, as he was then called, as a popular broadcaster and a successful politician in England. In 1962, when he received his knighthood, he chose the word loyalty for his motto. Speaking on his choice he said: you can‘t have trust and real relations between people without loyalty. I have a loyalty to myself, to my family, to the crown. In regard to the crown, what started as an instinctive feeling from my early life became a deep conviction because of my study of history. My ancestors, and people like them, built Canada and Australia and New Zealand and I‘m certainly not prepared for one moment to apologize for British Imperialism. Anyone who has studied history must know that this movement which started in Britain brought peace and law and order and some kind of civilization to more people on the face of this earth than any other phenomenon of history. That is a fine statement from a fine man that will bear reflecting on â€" especially at a time when Canada is host to the Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers. area. But while the governments have been pushing public transit, the TTC is short of bus drivers and buses. There is standing room only now even in the non rush hour period on some TTC routes. The bus drivers, who have enough trouble with traffic congestion and people who want change for big bills, no longer have time to catch the increasing number of persons who gre violating regulations by smoking on the uses. change. Then there are those children who put Who does not slander with his tongue, And does no evil to his friend... (One) Who swears to his own hurt and does not Loyalty province. Theoretically, for example, it raises the prospect that apart from the lignite of the north, Onâ€" tario Hydro might invest in coal supplies in the USA. McKeough has publicly conceded that Ontario might consider becoming part of a consortium to develop the Athabaska tar sands in Alberta. My information is that the direct use of lignite from our northern deposits may not prove to be technically feasible in our cold climes (the high watér content results in its freezing unâ€" manageably in the wintertime), so that the only anâ€" swer may be the gasification of the lignite, and thenâ€" feeding it into our natural gas distribution system. That would involve great capital outlay. 0 All of which raises the politically controversial issue of whether the gas distribution in Ontario shouldn‘t all be rationalized through a provinceâ€"wide publiclyâ€" owned and operated system. After all, three generations ago in Ontario, it was a Conservative government, under the relentless prodding of Sir Adam Beck which established Ontario hydro to provide power at cost. Why is it not equally as valid for the same approach for the new power source which natural gas now represents â€"not only to make it available at cost, but also to make certain that the distribution system is developed: into all areas of the province. If electric power had been left in private hands, there would still be parts of Ontario without it, just as there are vast areas of Ontario without the advantages, industrially and domestically,; of gas today. In the McKeough proposals â€" assuming that they are accepted by the government â€" there are many ingredients of what could be shaped into an effective energy policy. But there are gaps that must be filled. As energy spokesman for the New Democratic Party, I shall do my level best to see that they are filled. k i ‘The flme., “,;*’,Al‘g!fl?;”w o U.’ 5e 1 But much of our behavior today runs contrary to this ideal. We judge a situation much more by a standard of expediency than by a standard of loyalty. We find it easy to twist the truth to our own ends. We don‘t mind who goes to the wall so long as we come out on top or better off financially. There is another Psalm (Psalm 55) which reflects the deep hurt of the person who suffers from this kind of loose loyalty : It is not an enemy who taunts me â€" Then I could bear it; It is not an adversary who deals insolently with me But this disloyalty, which is what the bearing of false witness signifies, is not just a matter of public behavior. It is also a matter of private behavior. We can bear false witness against our neighbor behind the scenes as well as on stage. This we do by slanderous gossip and tittleâ€"tattle. Then I could hide from him. It is you my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. No, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor â€" either in public or in private. their feet on the seats, the people who force their way off the front of the bus instead of the middle doors. Men very seldom give up their seats any more to women on the buses. The frequency of service on some borough bus routes is infrequent. a If Metro and the province are determined to have more and more transit riders they should at least see that transit riding is made convenient and comfortable. Otherwise motorists will prefer to sit in traffic jams. â€" I know it is from one mouth to another that word gets around â€" and where would any of us be without a grapeâ€"vine? But it is possible for poison to spread through the conduits of a community as well as healthy information. _ One wit said of a certain lady much given to this kind of poison spreading that she had a good sense of rumor. It may be good for each of us (as well as President Nixon) to ponder these words of Jan Struther : Private opinion creates public opinion: public opinion overâ€" flows eventually into national behavior, and national behavior, as things are arranged at present, can make or mar the world. That is why private opinion and private conversations are so terrifyingly impartant.